


The Ghost of Christmas Present

by LizEBoredom



Series: Christmas Ghost Stories 2018 [2]
Category: Bloodbound (Visual Novel)
Genre: Fluff, Friendship, Future, Future Fic, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-24
Updated: 2016-12-24
Packaged: 2019-10-10 02:37:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17417432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LizEBoredom/pseuds/LizEBoredom
Summary: Lily tries to scare a room full of vampires with a ghost story. It goes as well as you'd expect.





	The Ghost of Christmas Present

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: There is an old tradition of telling ghost stories at Christmas time. The most well-known of these has become Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. In that spirit, I present this series of Choices characters telling ghost stories at Christmas.
> 
> Disclaimer: Characters belong to Pixelberry. I’m just borrowing them.

“So, is everyone ready? No backing out once we get started!”

Minah was helping Lily place snacks around the living room, unable to contain her excitement. This was her favorite part of Christmas, their annual tradition of Christmas Eve ghost stories. Except this year, instead of just Minah and Lily, the small living room in their tiny apartment was crammed full of actual vampires, including Lily herself.

Kamilah gingerly picked up a Funyun, sniffing it before making a face and dropping it back into the bowl in front of her. Adrian and Jax were currently engaged in a heated debate over whether eggnog should contain brandy or rum. Minah rolled her eyes at the men.

“Neither of you has to drink it, so what does it matter?”

“It’s the principle of the thing! Nobody puts brandy in eggnog! That’s disgusting!”

“Eggnog itself is disgusting! That’s why it needs rum!” Jax countered.

Minah decided it was best to get between the two before this escalated further and the neighbors called the cops. She did just that, plopping herself on the couch between the two, snuggling against Jax, who instinctively put his arm around her.

“That’s enough, boys. We’re here to tell ghost stories, so who wants to start?”

“Ooh, I’ll go,” said Adrian. “Once upon a time, there was a senator named Adam Vega. Oof!”

He was interrupted by the cushion Kamilah had tossed at his face with deadly accuracy.

“No,” she said, pointing a finger at him. “Behave, brother.” She rounded on Lily, asking what the point of this was.

“It’s a Christmas tradition,” offered Lily. “We do it every year.”

“It’s like A Christmas Carol…Lily read an article a few years ago about how in the past there was a tradition of telling ghost stories. Of course, Miss Horror Movie Marathon here couldn’t resist, and so it’s become our thing,” added Minah.

“Why don’t I start?” said Lily with a sigh. “That way you guys can get a feel for it.”

Everyone nodded. Minah couldn’t help but wonder how the group would react to the silly ghost stories they usually told. It was hard to picture vampires being spooked by campfire tales.

“There’s a legend that if you want to see the dead, there are a number of ways to go about it. One of those ways is to sell salt to them. To do this, you go to a cemetery at night, carrying salt and a mat. Sit on the mat and arrange the salt on it, and at midnight, the ghosts will begin to appear.

“They’ll stretch out their hands in front of you, and you just have to place some of the salt you brought into their palm. But you can never look up at them, or they’ll take their revenge. The legend says that if you can do this, they’ll pay you with random things that will turn into real money at sunrise. When the sun finally comes up, you can pack up and leave the cemetery but you can’t look back or you’ll see your own death.”

She paused for effect, pouting about the fact that nobody looked scared.

“Tough crowd,” she huffed. “So anyway, one night this guy decided he really wanted to see a ghost. Copious amounts of alcohol may have been involved. As he wandered into the cemetery, he found a spot that seemed perfect. He set everything up and thought it was perfect, so all he needed to do was wait for the ghosts to show up. It was a chilly night, so he was drinking a bit more to keep warm.

“Well, no sooner had midnight hit than his first customer arrived. As he sat the smell of rot and decay assaulted him, and a hand reached in front of him, gray and lifeless, the flesh peeled back and dried up, bone peeking through the fingertips.

“The man didn’t know what to do, and panicked. Rather than placing the salt in the ghost’s hand, the man screamed, and went bolting through the cemetery. He was ready to nope out of there and never come back. Unfortunately, he was so drunk and it was so dark, he didn’t see the open grave in front of him.

“He went down, hard, and started to freak out. He was in a cemetery, with nobody around for miles to help him, inside and open grave with a ghost after him. He was sure he was gonna die. As he started screaming for help, he felt a hand close around his shoulder and a voice in his ear, ‘Guess you fell in, too, huh?’ The man turned his head to the side and noticed the fingers on his shoulder were not fingers at all, but bones . When they found him the next morning, his flask at his side, they chalked his death up to a man drinking in the cemetery and falling into an open grave. But that didn’t explain the skeletal handprint left on the shoulder of his shirt.”

Lily ended her story with an expectant grin, anticipating the reactions she’d get. Minah, for her part, had burrowed a bit further into Jax’s side, taking comfort in his warm arm around her, but it was hard to be scared of Lily’s stories in a room full of the undead surrounded by cheese balls and M&Ms.

“Why would a dead person need salt?” Kamilah was the first to end the silence in the room.

“Um… I…uh… I don’t know?”

“If nobody goes to the cemetery to sell salt, where do they get it from? Do they just stockpile it? What do they do with it? Are they cooking with it?”

“I… it’s a  _story_ , Kamilah,” Liky said, rolling her eyes. “You’re supposed to just enjoy it.”

“But it leaves so many more questions than answers.”

“I would agree,” added Adrian. “If they’re so interested in salt, why would they kill the one person who would sell it to them. Just for running away? For looking at them? It seems like poor business practice to me.”

“I think you’re all missing the point here,” said Jax, looking around the room. Lily looked grateful to him until he continued. “The real question is, if they’re paying with random objects that turn into money, what’s the exchange rate? Like is a raccoon worth more than a rock?”

“I hate you guys,” Lily said, laughing.

“Oh Lily,” Minah said with a barely suppressed giggle. “Don’t be so  _salty_.”

“I’m done with you,” she said, the room dissolving into laughter. “That’s enough making fun of Lily for tonight. Who’s next?”

More stories were exchanged late into the night. Minah looked around the room, the only human in a room full of vampires, and yet feeling as though everything was finally  _right_. She looked up at Jax, who smiled back at her.

“It’s getting late…or, early. Want to call it a night?” he asked, leaning down to kiss her temple. As she nodded, she couldn’t help but think this was one of the best Christmases she’d ever had.


End file.
